Citation Management

Overview

Manage citations systematically throughout the research and writing process. This skill provides tools and strategies for searching academic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed), extracting accurate metadata from multiple sources (CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv), validating citation information, and generating properly formatted BibTeX entries.

Critical for maintaining citation accuracy, avoiding reference errors, and ensuring reproducible research. Integrates seamlessly with the literature-review skill for comprehensive research workflows.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Searching for specific papers on Google Scholar or PubMed
• Converting DOIs, PMIDs, or arXiv IDs to properly formatted BibTeX
• Extracting complete metadata for citations (authors, title, journal, year, etc.)
• Validating existing citations for accuracy
• Cleaning and formatting BibTeX files
• Finding highly cited papers in a specific field
• Verifying that citation information matches the actual publication
• Building a bibliography for a manuscript or thesis
• Checking for duplicate citations
• Ensuring consistent citation formatting

Visual Enhancement with Scientific Schematics

When creating documents with this skill, always consider adding scientific diagrams and schematics to enhance visual communication.

If your document does not already contain schematics or diagrams:

• Use the scientific-schematics skill to generate AI-powered publication-quality diagrams
• Simply describe your desired diagram in natural language
• Nano Banana Pro will automatically generate, review, and refine the schematic

For new documents: Scientific schematics should be generated by default to visually represent key concepts, workflows, architectures, or relationships described in the text.

How to generate schematics:

python scripts/generate_schematic.py "your diagram description" -o figures/output.png

The AI will automatically:

• Create publication-quality images with proper formatting
• Review and refine through multiple iterations
• Ensure accessibility (colorblind-friendly, high contrast)
• Save outputs in the figures/ directory

When to add schematics:

• Citation workflow diagrams
• Literature search methodology flowcharts
• Reference management system architectures
• Citation style decision trees
• Database integration diagrams
• Any complex concept that benefits from visualization

For detailed guidance on creating schematics, refer to the scientific-schematics skill documentation.

Core Workflow

Citation management follows a systematic process:

Phase 1: Paper Discovery and Search

Goal: Find relevant papers using academic search engines.

#### Google Scholar Search

Google Scholar provides the most comprehensive coverage across disciplines.

Basic Search:

# Search for papers on a topic
python scripts/search_google_scholar.py "CRISPR gene editing" \
  --limit 50 \
  --output results.json

# Search with year filter
python scripts/search_google_scholar.py "machine learning protein folding" \
  --year-start 2020 \
  --year-end 2024 \
  --limit 100 \
  --output ml_proteins.json

Advanced Search Strategies (see references/google_scholar_search.md):

• Use quotation marks for exact phrases: "deep learning"
• Search by author: author:LeCun
• Search in title: intitle:"neural networks"
• Exclude terms: machine learning -survey
• Find highly cited papers using sort options
• Filter by date ranges to get recent work

Best Practices:

• Use specific, targeted search terms
• Include key technical terms and acronyms
• Filter by recent years for fast-moving fields
• Check "Cited by" to find seminal papers
• Export top results for further analysis

#### PubMed Search

PubMed specializes in biomedical and life sciences literature (35+ million citations).

Basic Search:

# Search PubMed
python scripts/search_pubmed.py "Alzheimer's disease treatment" \
  --limit 100 \
  --output alzheimers.json

# Search with MeSH terms and filters
python scripts/search_pubmed.py \
  --query '"Alzheimer Disease"[MeSH] AND "Drug Therapy"[MeSH]' \
  --date-start 2020 \
  --date-end 2024 \
  --publication-types "Clinical Trial,Review" \
  --output alzheimers_trials.json

Advanced PubMed Queries (see references/pubmed_search.md):

• Use MeSH terms: "Diabetes Mellitus"[MeSH]
• Field tags: "cancer"[Title], "Smith J"[Author]
• Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT
• Date filters: 2020:2024[Publication Date]
• Publication types: "Review"[Publication Type]
• Combine with E-utilities API for automation

Best Practices:

• Use MeSH Browser to find correct controlled vocabulary
• Construct complex queries in PubMed Advanced Search Builder first
• Include multiple synonyms with OR
• Retrieve PMIDs for easy metadata extraction
• Export to JSON or directly to BibTeX

Phase 2: Metadata Extraction

Goal: Convert paper identifier